!!! I need help friends, my tank is going down !!!

[Ruben's Reef]

Good morning to all. Something is going wrong with my tank apart of high Alk. A week ago I decide to change the dose of ATI Essentials Pro of 4ml once a day to 2ml twice a day so went I setup the doser on/off twice but didn't choose off on the last drop on the app dumping overnight almost half of the bottle #1. After I came from work I saw a couple of corals not fully open and my red cleaner shrimp dead. I went and did an alk check with hanna and Its read 20.0 then did another test and came out the same, and by the manual means is out of range. Then I start doing a couple of w/c to bring down that number but instead of RSCP salt I got Aquaforest salt that a new batch seat at around 8dkh. Corals get a little better but then again start residing and I just loss the other cleaner shrimp. Yesterday night did a ammonia, nitrites, nitrates test and shows 0,0, 5ppm. I check my water and it shows 0 tds. Something that I saw yesterday was a light green film on the glass. I was thinking to get at least 40g of water from the LFS and do W/C to see if anything wrong with the water on a effort to bring everything back to normal. I have a 40g breeder tank with 35lbs of rocks running for almost two years, a 30g sump with about 15g water and a few rocks and cheato in the refugium and a skimmer. Also filter cup with some carbon and filter flosh that I change every two days. All fish are doing fine. Alk still reading 20.0 and its a new reagent that I already test before. Any suggestions will be gladly appreciated. #reefsquad

 

[Lazydayz]

First off sorry to hear about the losses. I am no expert by any means but I'd say the shrimp died due to the fast swing in Alk. I would just keep up with large water changes spaced out over the next week or more to turn over all the water in the tank. Good luck hopefully you wont lose anything else!

 

[MERKEY]

You are going to get a lot of helpful suggestions!

How old is the tank?

If the tank is established enough and Off the top of my head and without the most knowledge here, my suggestion for this particular situation if the tank is established, would be a 90% water change. Or as large a water change you can.

Or you can add a natural acid like vinegar. But read up on that as you will have to dose and test until you get to the right level.

Or 3rd just wait.....the hardest and most likely could harm more while waiting...

 

[CasaReefer]

Big Water Change.. Yup That's The Ticket

 

[The Aquatic Arsenal]

Well as you already know, you have to get that alkalinity down. I would suggest changing out as much water as possible.

 

[WVNed]

I would change 50% of the water and the next day do it again. Stop dosing anything for a week.

 

[DSC reef]

The alkalinity is definitely a problem, I would suggest having your water tested by another source like your LFS. I know it's hard to watch but try and make changes singly and slowly instead of a hail mary. Sorry to see you going through this. Pick a salt and stay with it as well.

 

[LAReefer4Life]

That’s sucks. Im sorry this happened to you. Unfortunately there isn’t much you can do. I would conduct large water changes over the next week or so. You don’t want to shock all the lifestock again by making another sudden change to water chemistry, you’ll just have more mortalities that way. Maybe some else has a better idea

 

[WVNed]

What is your pH?

 

[SPR1968]

I would go for a series of say 20% water changes over a few days and just bring the alkalinity down to normal levels that way.

Or even 10% every day which may be a little gentler but I wouldn’t go for massive water changes unless you have no other choice because things are dying off or you could make things worse.

i would also get the alkalinity reading double checked to make sure it’s correct.

 

[Ruben's Reef]

What is your pH?

Thanks. Ph is 8.2

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I was thinking on a 80% w/c but like a you guys said too much of a change can be bad too. I will get a water sample to the LFS for their test and see what's the result. I also was thinking on a ICP test but will take a while to get a result.

 

[kireek]

I agree with @DSC reef @pathot984 and @SPR1968 .Don't try and get everything back to normal too fast. Continue with the frequent water testing.Keep a eye on Salinity,Calcium and Mag levels as well. Best of luck moving forward!

 

[Aussiemarine]

Sorry to hear yes all will cause problems at that level and so quickly. Fish are hardy and should be fine with big swings like Alk but watch your PH. Water changes will help some have said slow some have said quick. I’d go slow and change over a few days

 

[Kzang]

Brs had something like this happen recently. They did an immediate almost 100% water change. Even after changing the water with a tiny bit of water leftz it as still 12 dkh.

They did a live stream talking about it too

 

[Ruben's Reef]

Good afternoon All. Here's an update of the nightmare with my tank. After the 30g w/c done last Saturday I bring down the alk from 20.0 (over the range measure) to 12.7dkh. Now I did another alk test and is at 11.6 dkh. I might do another 10% w/c this Friday to put that Alk slowly between 8-9 dkh. I'm using Aquaforest Reef Salt.
Here's an small video of the recovery. Thank you all for your suggestions.

 

[Aussiemarine]

Tanks looking beautiful well done

 

[Katrina71]

Do you see any negative effects? I really don't in the video. Excellent quick work. I'm sorry for the shrimp losses.

 

[fishface NJ]

Wow @spyder813 sorry to read this. I had high alk from IO salt bags that was a bad batch. Lost almost all my corals. Fish were okay. Sounds like your numbers are getting back to normal.

 

[Nano10]

Alk alone might very well be the cause of all your issues. I'd do a number of smaller waterchanges daily to get it to a reasonable level without dropping it oo fast. Doing so could shock the corals further.